Speed-controlling mechanism.



A. M. WOLF.

SPEED CONTROLLING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 11, 1908.

928,727, Patented July 20, 1909.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Qwi bncooco A. M. WOLF.

SPEED CONTROLLING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 11, 1908.

928,727. Patented July 20, 1909.

5 SHEETSSHEET 2.

Qwi maoo-eo 5 woe who I A. M. WOLF.

SPEED CONTROLLING MECHANISM.

APPLIOATION FILED JULY 11I 17908.

Patented July 20, 1909.

5 SHEETSSHEET 3.

wi/lmewao A. M. WOLF.

SPEED CONTROLLING MECHANISM.

APPLIOATION FILED JULY 11, 1908,

Patented July 20, 1909.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

A. M. WOLF.

SPEED CONTROLLING MECHANISM.

APPLIOATION FILED JULY 11, 1908.

Patented July 20, 1909.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUS-TIN M. WOLF, O-F NEW YORK, r.

SPEED-CONTROLLING- MECHANISM.

To all whom it may concern. i

'Be it known that I, AUSTIN M. WoLr, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Y ork, inthe borough of Manhattan, county and State of New York, have invented cer-. tain new and useful Improvements in Speed Controllin Mechanism for Motor-Vehicles,

of which t e following is a specification.

This invention relates to s eed controlling mechanism for motor vehicles, and the obj ects of the invention are to provide a simple and efficient change gearing and effective and simple selective or control devices for the gearing.

Further objects are to simplify and render more eflicient the details of construction.

In order that my invention may be fully understood I will now proceed to describe it with reference to the accompanying drawings, showing a'desirable form'of the in vention, and 1n which Figure 1 is a plan view of the change s eed gears; Fig. 2 is a horizontal section 0 the same parts in different position; Fig. 3 is a side view of some of the ears showing how the reversing gear is use Fig. 4: is a cross sectional view showing the same parts; Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the controlling devices for shifting the'speed changep'ears; Fig. 5 is a detail View of a lockin dIevice; Fig. 6 is'a broken sectional view 0 some of said parts shown in Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a detail view of my improved controlling lever footplate; and Figs. 8, 9, l0 and 11 are diagrammatic views showin the positions of the parts brought into p ay in the four different speed positions. 7

-Referring to the drawings, Fi 1, 2, 3 and 4, the gear box or case a maybla of suitable construction, and contains my improved speed change gears, comprising a double bevel or crown-wheel b mounted on driven shaft b'of the motor vehicle, with its two series of teeth b b, in constant mesh with; bevel gears o, c, that are mounted toturn on ball bearings 0 carried by suitable boxes 0 supported from the gear-case. A tubular clutch member or sleeve d is adapted to, en-

gage, at will, either of said gears 0, c, to which end it has a head (1 which engages either in recesses c in gear 0 or with lugs 0 v on gear 0. Said clutch member is feathered on a driving shaft e alined with the engine or power shaft 6 and has a bearing throughout its length or from end to end on the shaft Specification-of Letters Patent Application filed .Tuly 11, 1908. Serial No. 448,089.

"a shifting rod 9 4-6" and mayv be shifted lengthwise as by a Patented July .20, 190a.

shifting rod f having a yoke f taking into the groove of a. hub Z on said member.

Upon the power shaft e there'is mounted a gear g which forms a clutch member to be engaged with another clutchmember formed by.,a.gear 9' that is feathered on shaft e so as to be shifted thereon by a yoke g carried by Shafts e, 6, form practically one shaft when the clutch portions 9, 9", of gears g, g are engaged. The latter is the case. for a direct drive, and two speeds may then be obtained by making gears c or 0' turn with the power shaft. For reducing speed the gear g is shifted to engage with a gear h located on a suitably mounted counter- Shaft 71. which is driven by the engagement of gear 9 with a gear k on said shaft h.

The parts described operate as follows: To

secure the lowest speed, gear 9 is shifted to mesh with gear k, so that the driving shaft 6 is driven slower than power shaft 0', and the gear 0 is clutched so as to give a slow movement to driven ear 6. To secure higher speed, the gear 0 is disconnectedand the gear 0 is clutched. In both of these cases the speed reducing gears 71. and h are used.

To-secure a still higher speed thegear g .is shifted and becomes a clutch member which'en ages the gear g, and the gear a is again 0 utched. .The highest speed is obtained when the gear 0 is disconnected and gear 0 clutched, but in both of the last two changes of speed the reducing gear runs idle. For the reverse, an intermediate shiftable reversin' -gear 71 is used, the same being mounts on a suitably sup orted fixed shaftat a point so that it may e shifted to mesh with and connect the ears 9 and h. The

' longitudinal shifting of gear 11 is done by the shi ting rod 9 which has a cam is that may be brought in contact with the short arm of a pivoted lever k. Lever is" has a yoke k which takes intoa groove in the hub z" of said ear z. The movements-of the gears g and z areso timed in shifting them for reverse that they are caused to mesh before the I reversing gea'r'i is meshed with the gear h.

The control of the speed ears is effectuated throughthe medium 0 my improved controlling or selecting devices, shown clearly inaFigs. 5., 6 and 7, which act through the 1-0, s control-lever is mounted on a tube m which is longitudinally shiftable on the brakeoperatmg shaft n, which has a brake-lever n The longitudinal movement of the tube and g on said gears. To this end, a'

ent speeds, and the letter .t'R,

is a double eared bracket 2, between the ears ofwhich is. located the hub g-of a down-v wardly projecting rock-arm g" which is, pivotally connected with the rod 9 Said;

hub g has a -feather or spline g? 'whichengages in *a' longitudinal groove. m the tube m, to permit the tube to rock said arm g without interfering with the longitudinal shifting movement of the tube. In actuating the rod 9 from therock arm g, the full power of the control lever is utilized for dofmg the greater amount of .Work required.

The shaft 7:. on which. said tube is mounted is preferably supported from a standard-brupright 1- which has a foot-piece or guide 1*- and is suitably fixed to the frame-work.v

The movements of the control-lever] are confined by an open-stop frame s at the top of standard 1", through which the lever handle projects, and the positions and movements of the said lever .for the different speeds are determined by four suitably space lugs 1' on the foot-piece, the. lever .having anextension or pointer l which may move about and between the lu s, constituting the field of movement oflthe. latter. These lugs are clearly shown in,F-ig:,7 vThe spaces between the lugs are lettered 1". Such a construction'is believed to simplify the usual means for selecting and controlling the, speeds and to also save the chauffeurmuch trouble and time, as thelever Z may be quickly moved from one position to another, the stop-frame s confining the movements of the lever within limits. The requiredmovements of the control-lever are thus reduced to a minimum. The ends of the-spaces 7' between the :four lugs r are conveniently numbered 1, 2, 3, 4:, for indicating the difiershows' to which side of the lugs the .lever extension Z is to be moved for reversal of movement.

Figs. 8-11 and Figsufi and 7 illustrate clearly how the parts are shifted for the various speeds. control-lever fl is moved so that its extension Z will be set out of contact with the lugs but over point 1,:-giving the position shown in Fig. 8; for the next speed the point 2, giving the position to Fig. 9; the=next the point'3, giving the position shown in Fig. 10; and for the highest speed, the point it, giving the osition shown in'Fig. 11. In stepping u rom 1 to 4 the lever I may be ulled an shifted in a practicallystraight line, except in shifting from 2 to 3, when a corner has to be turned, as indicated by the double are row Fig. 7. In reversing, the control-lever the springs F.

For the' lowest speed the I shaft.

may be shifted in a direct line, from any speed, to, the reverse position; although either of two reverse speeds can be secured by shifting to either reverse position, indicated by R. Or,.the shift can be from one to another reverse position to secure two -re- H Thus it is apparent that the described guiding means for the controlverse speeds.

lever enables the obtaining of any one of six different positions .for the lever, the latter be g. guidedfinthree possible lines at an angle to two possible lines.

Means for securing the control-lever and its operated arts in their shifted positions are provided y the lock-pins such as 16, shown in. detail in Fig. 5' which are suitably supported in'the gear-case'a, and arepressed into notches t in the shifting rods 7 and 9 by Having thus described my invention with reference vto a desirable form thereof, but

without restricting myself as .to the form shown because parts may be omitted, added, modified and substituted without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention,

what is claimed as new and of my invention is: y

1. In speed controlling mechanism for motor vehicles, the combination of a power shaft, a variable speed driving shaft, a

shiftable gear on the driving shaft, a gear on the power shaft having an enlarged chamber adjacent said. shiftable, gear, said shiftable gear being of greater diameter than said power shaft gear, aball bearing contained in the said.chamber of said power shaft gear, said driving shaft terminating inthe body of said power shaft gear and turning in said ball bearing, a counter-shaft, a pair of gears on the counter-shaft of different diameter, thefsmall and large gears of the power and driving shafts having clutch-v ing means, and be" arranged to mesh respectively with the large and small gears of the countereshaft, means for shifting the shiftable gear to mesh with the smaller gear of the counter-shaft, or to couple it with its companion gear whereby two speeds for the variable speed driving shaft are obtained, a driven shaft, and means for driving the driven shaft at two speeds-relatively to the said driving shaft, whereby the driven shaft may have four speeds relatively-to the power- 2. In speed controlling mechanism for motor vehicles, the combination of a power shaft, a variable speed driving shaft, a gear on the power shaft, a gear of greater diameter on and shift'able'longitudinally of the variable speed driving shaft, a counter-shaft, a pair of gears on the countershaft of different diameter, the small and large gears of the power and driving shafts having clutching means, and being arranged to mesh respectivelywith the large and small gears of the counter-shaft, a shift-.

. substantially for the purposes set forth.

ing rod provided with means for shifting the shiftable gear to mesh with the smaller gear of the counter-shaft, or to couple it with its companion gear whereby two speeds for the variable sgeed driving shaft are obtained, a driven shaft, means for driving the driven shaft at two speeds relatively to the said driving shaft, whereby the drlven shaft may have four speeds relatively to the power shaft, an idle reversing gear, and means also actuated b said shiftlng rod for shifting the idle gear ongitudinally, and for meshin the teeth thereof with the teeth of the shiftable gear and the smaller countershaft gear to obtain two, reverse speeds for the driven shaft, said shiftin rod which is in common with both said s ifting means, performing all of the shifting operations aforesaid, substantially as set forth.

3. In speed control-ling mechanism .for motor vehicles, the combination of a drive shaft, a pair of bevel gears, hearings in which said gears are separately mounted, in axial alinement, the hub of the outer of said gears loosely receiving the outer end of the said shaft, each of said gears having a clutch-portion, a clutch member having a sleeve slidingl mounted on the said shaft and having a earing throu hout its length, upon said shaft, the hub o the other said gear receiving saidsleeve, and the hub and bearing of the said outer of said gears being located outside of the said clutch member, a

driven shaft, a ear on the driven shaft pro-. vided with a ouble series of bevel teeth meshing at all times with the teeth of said bevel gears, and means controlling said clutch member to engage same with the clutch portion of either of said beyel gears,

4. In speed controlling mechanism for motor vehicles, the combination of it drives shaft, bearings, a pair of separate bevelgears wlth colncident axes supported by the hearings, and each provided with a clutch portion, a clutch memberturned positively y said bevel-gears,- said shaft being supported directly by one of the bevel-gears and directly by the clutch member, and said clutch member having a bearing throughout its entire length upon said shaft, means for engaging said clutch member with either of the clutch portions of the bevel-gears, a driven shaft,-a gear on the driven shaft 'provided with .a double series of bevel teeth meshing at all times with the portion, a clutch-member having a sleeve slidingly mounted. on the said shaft and su ported bythe inner of said bevel-gears,

said clutch member having a bearing throughout its entire length upon said shaft the hub of the other, said gear receivin sai sleeve, a driven shaft, av gear on the riven shaft provided with a double series of bevel teeth meshing at all times with the teeth of said-bevel-gears, and means controlling said said shaft. and supported by the inner of clutch member to' engage same with the clutch portion of either of said bevel-gears,

substantially for thepurposes set forth.

- Signed at the city of, count of, and State of New York, this 9th da of ul ,1908.

' AU TIN WOLF.

' Witnessesz,

GEo. L. WnEELocK, M. TURNER. 

